Lorenz Kellhuber

pianist | composer

English (for German version scroll down)

“One of the most interesting jazz piano players of his generation“ (Fono Forum): Not only since his second, critically acclaimed album “COSMOS”, Lorenz Kellhuber is considered an extraordinary talent in the jazz scene. The 26-year-old shines not only as an instrumentalist but also as a composer and as an improvisator. As the first German musician he received the first price of the renowned Parmigiani Piano Solo Competition at Montreux Jazz Festival from Monty Alexander in summer 2014 and was invited to the first Montreux Jazz Academy where he played with Lee Ritenour, Charles Lloyd and Eric Harland. In 2016 Lorenz was nominated for the ECHO Jazz as “Newcomer of the Year”.

With an “impressive sovereignty in a multi-faceted play” (MZ) Lorenz Kellhuber guides the audience through his entertaining concerts : Heʼs a storyteller who presents himself as a thoroughly contemporary jazz musician. The melodic inventions of this “hotshot” (Jazz thing) are concise and catchy. His harmonies are colorful. Within a frame of song-like structures his compositions are filled with sparkling liveliness. His rhythm is boiling and driving, keeping the tension of his sophisticated compositions with intensity. The young eye on the material meets a technical precision that testifies to his artistic maturity. “This energetic, innovative music is one of the most exciting things Iʼve listened to in a long time. Chapeau!” (Concerto)

Born in Munich in 1990, he started his classical piano studies at the young age of five, taught by Prof. Franz Massinger and others. His first concert he played when he was eight years old. Aged twelve, he became a Jungstudent at the Church Music School of Regensburg. Around this time he was discovered by pianist Rob Bargad (Nat Adderley Quintet) who introduced him extensively to jazz stylistics. At the age of only sixteen, Lorenz passed the exam as a highly gifted and became a student at Berlin Jazz Institute, where Kurt Rosenwinkel, Hubert Nuss, Greg Cohen, John Hollenbeck were among his teachers. From the beginning, Lorenz has been part of the Berlin music scene. Soon he obtained an excellent reputation and got his first engagements in the most renowned clubs of the city. After going to New York for some time to enhance his skills with the help of two piano legends, Aaron Goldberg and Fred Hersch, Lorenz finally completed his studies in Berlin in 2010.

Meanwhile he matured to an authentic musical personality. In the summer of 2011 he founded the Lorenz Kellhuber Trio with Arne Huber on bass and Gabriel Hahn on drums playing his own compositions only. “One of the best German piano trios”, the music magazine AUDIO wrote. In early 2014 Lorenz founded a second trio called Lorenz Kellhuber Standard Experience with two highly sought-after sidemen of New Yorkʼs jazz scene, bassist Orlando le Fleming (Kurt Rosenwinkel, Joey Calderazzo) and drummer Obed Calvaire (SF Jazz Collective, Richard Bona), interpreting pieces from the Great American Songbook. “The Brooklyn Session”, the first recording of this project, was released in November 2015.

At the same time Lorenz has impressed his audience since 2012 with his solo concerts and his abilities in free improvisation. He exactly knows how to get the best out of his instrument. By eliciting orchestral and chamber music sounds beyond the borders of a genuine jazz sound, he makes his way to a stunning individual style. With his technical perfection and inexhaustible ingenuity he creates “improvisations of astonishing depth and maturity” (Jazzwise Magazine) proving himself a sensitive sound aesthete.